On 2014-11-16 21:47, bigbrotiki wrote:It would be interesting to create a family tree of how many Tiki places throughout the States, starting with the Mai Kai and the Kahiki, were staffed by ex Don & Vic employees.

Sven,

I was thinking that same idea when I posted this. A few more famous locations that immediately come to mind with ex Don and Vic employees are Tiki Ti, Tiki Bobs and the Stockton Islander. I think this would be a great thread, there are many more.

Aloha everyone.
We've not been around much recently, life has been keeping us very, VERY busy, but this was too good not to share.
I just discovered this 1963 photo of the Black Pearl in Chicago from the archives of the Chicago Tribune. It looks like it was another shot taken the same time as the one taken above (appears to be the same patrons) however, it clearly shows an Andres Bumatay carving on the wall!

That is pretty cool in my book, but even cooler though is the fact that this carving looks to me like it was the basis of the classic OMC mug which has been found marked from Hala Kahiki, The Islander, JPCO., as well as unmarked. That mug has long been one of my absolute favorites, and Bumatay's carvings some of the most eccentric, imaginative of all the early independent carvers. We even took that mug design as inspiration for the Tiki Quest mug.

From the above image it looks like the carving was featured on their menu cover. Could it possibly be that this very carving was the inspiration/ origin of the mug?!? The very fact that this carving existed and was once here in Chicago is going to cause me to lose sleep. I refuse to concede that it could have ended up in a landfill and would rather believe that it is around here somewhere in someone’s basement waiting for us to rediscover it.
-Duke

i saw this slide on ebay a few months back- clearly shows another carved bumatay about the same size- seller did not know where it was from. does not look like the black pearl but i could be wrong - tikis get moved around all the time in places. - or there must be more than one bumatay carving floating around out there.